F3 Britain: Hadjar snatches sprint race win from Martins

The Hitech driver lined up in fourth, but passed Kush Maini for third at Vale on lap four, before swooping past Reece Ushijima for second place at Stowe several laps later.

Championship leader Martins (ART) managed to hold his position for much of the 17-lap race, having taken the lead off the line, but Hadjar eventually made it past two laps from the end around the outside of Stowe.

Hadjar had been running in fourth in the standings, 15 points adrift of his fellow Frenchman, but the win will move him up to third at the halfway mark of the season.

Martins settled for second, while Ushijima, who started on pole for Van Amersfoort Racing, rounded off the podium places.

The start was initially aborted after Carlin’s Brad Benavides suffered an issue off the line, prompting a second formation lap before the race start. The rookie then pitted, eventually making his way out at the back of the pack six laps down.

Martins took the lead into Abbey off the line, while Ushijima and Maini tussled for second.

Further back, Prema Racing’s Ollie Bearman lost two places in the first lap into Vale, with Maloney taking seventh place.

Jonny Edgar, making his return for Carlin after taking an illness-enforced break from racing, also dropped two places to David Vidales and Franco Colapinto to run in 15th.

Hadjar moved up to third on lap four, while the following lap, Ushijima was running within 0.5s of Martins out front, bunching up the top three.

The safety car was deployed on lap 10 after Charouz Racing System team-mates Laszlo Toth and Zdenek Chovanec collided at Club, with the latter attempting to move down the inside before hitting Toth’s rear right tyre.

Chovanec, who returns to F3 this weekend in place of Lirim Zendeli, was unable to get going again and prompted the safety car.

Racing resumed on lap 13, with Hadjar closing in on Martins for the lead, biding his time before eventually taking the lead around the outside of Stowe on the penultimate lap.

Maini took fourth, with Hitech’s Kaylen Frederik in fifth and Roman Stanek, currently second in the standings, in sixth for Trident.

Maloney finished seventh, with the Prema trio of Arthur Leclerc, Bearman and Jak Crawford rounding off the top 10.

Result:

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Gap
1	Isack Hadjar	HitechGP	17
2	Victor Martins	ART Grand Prix	17	0.700
3	Reece Ushijima	Van Amersfoort Racing	17	1.300
4	Kush Maini	MP Motorsport	17	2.900
5	Kaylen Frederick	HitechGP	17	5.800
6	Roman Staněk	Trident	17	6.500
7	Zane Maloney	Trident	17	7.200
8	Arthur Leclerc	Prema Powerteam	17	7.600
9	Oliver Bearman	Prema Powerteam	17	7.900
10	Jak Crawford	Prema Powerteam	17	8.500
11	Caio Collet	MP Motorsport	17	9.200
12	David Vidales	Campos Racing	17	10.900
13	Franco Colapinto	Van Amersfoort Racing	17	11.200
14	Zak O'Sullivan	Carlin	17	12.300
15	Jonny Edgar	Trident	17	12.900
16	Hunter Yeany	Campos Racing	17	13.300
17	Ido Cohen	Jenzer Motorsport	17	14.000
18	Gregoire Saucy	ART Grand Prix	17	14.300
19	William Alatalo	Jenzer Motorsport	17	14.900
20	Pepe Martí	Campos Racing	17	15.200
21	Juan Manuel Correa	ART Grand Prix	17	16.900
22	Nazim Azman	HitechGP	17	17.700
23	Rafael Villagomez	Van Amersfoort Racing	17	18.200
24	Filip Ugran	MP Motorsport	17	18.900
25	Francesco Pizzi	Charouz Racing System	17	21.100
26	Federico Malvestiti	Jenzer Motorsport	17	21.300
27	Enzo Trulli	Carlin	17	23.300
	Brad Benavides	Carlin	12
	László Tóth	Charouz Racing System	10
	Zdenek Chovanec	Charouz Racing System	8
View full results